Probing the van der Waals atom-surface interaction in the non-zero temperature limit

This reports on the surface attraction exerted onto Cs(8P), as measured through the selective reflection spectroscopy (SR) technique via a one- photon excitation at 388 nm from the ground state. In a series of experiments on the Cs (6S/sub 1/2/-8P/sub 3/2/) transition in front of a sapphire surface, the accuracy in the van der Waals evaluation, and with an improved fitting method, should be on the order of 10%. Further developments, expected to be reported too, concern the fine structure component Cs (6S/sub 1/2/-8P/sub 3/2/) , along with a study of SR spectroscopy at various interfaces.